Wiring New Jersey’s Past, Present and Future

When you need an electrician in northern New Jersey, there’s a good chance the person responding is one of the 3,000-plus members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 102. “From our humble roots wiring factories in Paterson, we have developed into this modern, high-tech business,” Local 102 Business Manager Patrick Delle Cava says.

More than just a high-tech workers union, Local 102 is also a “Temporary Employment Agency and a Human Resources outsourcing center,” Delle Cava explains. Local 102 has made its presence known for the work it does preparing for the workforce needs of tomorrow through all of its outreach to the community and institutions of higher education.

For that reason, Local 102 received a New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) “Member Company of the Year Award” in 2016, immediately making an impact after having just joined NJBIA the previous year.

“We’re happy to have received the ‘Member of the Year Award’ and to be part of this prestigious group,” Delle Cava says.

The award recognizes an NJBIA member for leadership and dedication to NJBIA’s mission to help champion a competitive business climate and acknowledges efforts to provide assistance to deliver member value.

NJBIA President Michele Siekerka spoke highly of Local 102, saying “NJBIA is proud of the partnership that it enjoys with IBEW Local 102. Together, we work on initiatives to advance skill building, workforce development and career readiness in order to ensure that New Jersey has a workforce at the ready for in-demand jobs.”

Additionally, Local 102 is heavily involved in various NJBIA events through attendance and as partners at events such as: the Workforce Development Summit; Meet the Decision Makers; Education Equation – where Local 102 President Bernard Corrigan was a panelist; and NJBIA Golf Day, where both Delle Cava and Corrigan were spotted “taking to the tees.”

“We enjoy supporting and attending [NJBIA] events and participating in roundtable discussions,” Delle Cava says, who took part in a roundtable discussion in New Jersey Business magazine last year about what unions face when helping to spur economic development. “We need to get politics out of the way of the developers and allow them to build and allow companies to thrive here,” he said.

And NJBIA helps open those lines of communication. “We meet with top-level politicians through NJBIA,” Delle Cava says.

“What we value most about our NJBIA membership,” Delle Cava says, “is the assocation’s ability to identify problems threatening the prosperity of our businesses. Michele [Siekerka] and her team do a fantastic job of not only illuminating the problems, but developing strategies we can support to protect our collective interests.”

Local 102 is well prepared to take on the changing nature of the industry and the constant need for electricians. It has a five-year apprenticeship program to teach the necessary technical skills as well as a continuing education program to advance previous knowledge and experience. Training for both programs takes place in a 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art training facility at Local 102 headquarters in Parsippany. “All our members are OSHA 30 certified and go through mandatory re-education every three years,” Delle Cava says. All Local 102 electricians are required to complete a minimum of 8,000 on-the-job training hours as well as OSHA 30 (Occupational Safety and Health Administration 30 Hour) training to ensure a safe working environment.

“Some of the better projects we’ve built over the past year were Honeywell, ASCO, Celgene, MetLife, FedEx and Montclair University,” Delle Cava says. “We’re actually building buildings from the ground up. For example, Honeywell and Celgene are all big companies for which we’re building 100,000-square-foot office buildings.”

Celgene: 1.3-million-square-foot headquarters

Honeywell: 475,000-square-foot headquarters

MetLife: 185,000-square-foot headquarters

FedEx: 163,000-square-foot headquarters

Montclair State University

School of Communications: 105,000 square feet; combined Morehead Hall and Life Hall into a single, multi-functional communications and multimedia facility.

Mallory Hall: (ongoing) 43,800 square feet; renovation and expansion from a 34,400-square-foot building, into a state-of-the-art instructional and research facility for the Computer Sciences.

“Local 102 was founded in 1900 in Paterson New Jersey, our nation’s oldest industrial city, where we built factories and schools, and maintained the infrastructure of the city of Paterson and the Passaic River corridor,” Delle Cava concludes. “Over time, several other groups merged into our local to form what Local 102 is today – a 3,000 member local servicing 300 different electrical contractors [in New Jersey and Pennsylvania].”

If you’re interested in Local 102’s services or training programs, contact Bernie Corrigan at